■'•'•' >'.'.■: 



Cites Big Growth In 

 v;^ ^^ Cost of Distribution 



Emergency Crop Loans 



It's Up to the Livestock 

 Growers To Do This Job 





* ■■»■. 



Numbers of Workers Engaged 

 ■In Processing And Distribu- ; 

 - tion Greatly Increased 







The tremendous increase in the cost 

 'of distribution of farm products dur- 

 ing the past 40 years was reviewed 

 by Dr. Mordecai Ezekiel, economic ad- 

 viser to Secretary Wallace, in a recent 

 address to Eastern retailers at Boston. 



In the 40 years from 1890 to 1930 

 farm workers increased hardly at all, 

 he said; workers on farms and in fac- 

 tories combined increased from 15,- 

 000,000 to 25,000,000; but the number 

 of persons engaged in trade and 

 transportation increased from 3,500,- 

 000 in 1890 to 12,000,000 by 1930— 

 from two workers in distribution for 

 each ten in fiscal production in 1890, 

 to almost five in distribution for ten 

 in such production in 1930. 



During the 40-year period the num- 

 ber of workers in fiscal production in- 

 creased by 80 per cent. Workers in 

 the professions and other service occu- 

 pations doubled, and workers in trade 

 and transportation almost quadrupled. 



From 1890 to 1913 the farm price of 

 foods increased 36 per cent and the 

 retail price of foods almost 70 per 



cent. ;;''';-^0':-VC"-y^-7;^''- V ^''''-i'--''V '''/>■'' ' '''■ 



^ ^;^ Farmer's Portion Cut ; ^ 



Thus, with a materially decreased 

 selling price since the current depres- 

 sion set in, and a substantially main- 

 tained margin by distributors, the por- 

 tion left for the farmer was sharply 

 reduced. ^-...••-. v,,... 



Although the retail prices at which 

 food products sold declined only 35 

 per cent between 1929 and 1932, the 

 prices received by farmers for food 

 products declined about 55 per cent. 

 Grocers received 65 per cent as much 

 as formerly and the farmer only 45 

 per cent as much. 



Ezekiel asks the questions: Should 

 we not begin to develop a decentral- 

 ized type of production with much 

 smaller units of plants and equip- 

 ment and selling its products through 

 simpler means and nearer to the point 

 of production? 



Might it not be desirable for more 

 men to engage in such decentralized 

 production? .^ ■-: 



Might not standards of living be 

 higher all the way around if we so 

 organize production and distribution 

 that we again have a large majority 

 of the population in the country en- 

 gaged in production and only a small 

 proportion engaged in transportation 

 and selling? 



: The St. Louis Federal Land Bank 

 reports that farmers who cannot 

 qualify for credit elsewhere may apply 

 for an emergency crop loan through 

 the local office. Farm Bureaus are re- 

 ceiving such applications. A fund of 

 $40,000,000 was recently appropriated 

 by congress for this purpose. The 

 maximum loan which will be made this 

 year to any one farmer is $250 and 

 the minimum is $25. The interest rate 

 is 5% per cent per annum. To be 

 eligible a farmer must be a co-oper- 

 ator in the AAA production control 

 program. 



A farmer applying for a loan of 

 $150 or more must first make applica- 

 tion to the Production Credit Associa- 

 tion serving his county. Rejection of 

 his application will be considered 

 sufficient evidence that other credit is 

 not available and the farmer may then 

 make application to the emergency 

 crop loan office. /;::v: ; , v ^ v . 



Production credit associations have 

 been established in the following 

 cities in Illinois: Amboy, Anna, Belle- 

 ville, Bloomington, Carlinville, Car mi, 

 Carrollton, Champaign, Charleston, 

 DeKalb, Paxton, Galesburg, Geneva, 

 Harrisburg, Havana, Centralia, Jack- 

 sonville, Joliet, Kewanee, Lincoln, Pon- 

 tiac, Macomb, Decatur, Aledo, Mon- 

 mouth, Mt. Vernon, Oregon, Ottawa, 

 Pekin, Pittsfield, Quincy, Robinson, 

 Rock Island, Shelbjrville, Springfield, 

 Danville, Watseka, Wheaton, and 

 Woodstock, v , ' ; ' V? 



The federal land banks are now of- 

 fering land bank bonds in place of 

 cash in refinancing farm mortgages. 

 The bonds are guaranteed by the gov- 

 ernment both as to interest and 

 principal. They bear 3% per cent in- 

 terest. •.. - -Ki :./. -^V'--; •.'. -^ r-'-.-^--.. -..^-'fy 



Walter L. Rust, president of the St. 

 Louis Land Bank, states that the most 

 recent report shows the bid price on 

 these bonds was 101 and offered 101%. 

 He states that signed agreements to 

 accept the bonds in lieu of cash are 

 being received by the land bank at the 

 rate of more than 500 per day. 



Corn-Hog Contracts 



It is estimated that around one mil- 

 lion corn-hog contracts will be signed 

 when the campaign is completed. Illi- 

 nois is expecting to deliver about 125,- 

 000 contracts, 110,000 of which were 

 reported signed several weeks ago. 

 Iowa reports 160,000 contracts signed. 

 The first contracts have been received 

 in Washington. The administration 

 hopes to begin sending out first bene- 

 fit payment checks soon. 



A man from the St. Louis Producer! : 

 recently called on 141 Adams county 

 farmers, 29 of whom were shipping 

 100 per cent of their livestock through 

 the Adams County Shippers Associa- 

 tion which markets all livestock re- 

 ceived through co-operatives. Thirty- 

 seven sent 100 per cent of their live- 

 stock by truck direct to the St. Louis 

 Producers and 75 were just not going 

 any place — mostly to old-line firms 

 and direct to the packers. Fifty-three 

 of the 75 farmers visited never . 

 shipped anything through co-operative >■■: 

 channels, and 22 shipped a few head . 

 co-operatively sometime during the 

 past. 



"We are of the opinion that the pro- 

 ducers themselves must eventually sell 

 their neighbors who are non-cooper- 

 ators if we are to obtain 50 per cent • 

 or more of the livestock during 1934 

 through co-operative channels," con- 

 cludes the marketing committee of the 

 Adams County Farm Bureau. 



V . • 



'.'■ • 



r\'. 



Quality Milk Meeting : 



/At tlie Le Claire hotel, Moline, on 

 Saturday night, March 31, several hun- 

 dred members of the Quality Milk As- 

 sociation voted in favor of leaving its 

 Class B stock with the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association. Secretary George 

 E. Metzger stated that if it was the 

 wish of the members that the I. A. A. 

 step out of the picture it would do so. 

 When President F. H. Schafer put the 

 question, the members voted to main- 

 tain the present relationship. The Illi- 

 nois-Iowa Milk Producers have been 

 opposing government licensing of milk 

 dealers and a higher price to the pro- 

 ducers on the ground that the "B" 

 stock setup was a bar to a merger of 

 the two groups. Many Quality As- 

 sociation members believe that the I 

 and I group is dominated by certain 

 dealers who feel that if the Farm Bu- 

 reau and I. A. A. withdraw the dis- 

 tributors can soon reign again as mar- 

 ket dictators. : ^ 



All directors of the Quality Milk 

 Association were re-elected. 



Manager Frank Watson reported 

 that the Association handled 29,490,- 

 258 pounds of milk in 1933, 32 per 

 cent of which was sold in Class 1. The 

 surplus plant handled a little more 

 than 10,000,000 pounds. 



The Association has invested ap- 

 proximately $13,000 in equipment im 

 its plant, all of which is paid for. 

 Neither the Quality Milk Association 

 nor its subsidiary have one dime of 

 indebtedness against them. 



12 



I. A. A. RECORD 



"*/ ■..'.■ 



